Jagandeep Mokha & Navkamal Bains

Webb
English, Per. 3
9 May, 2016

Contentions:
The United States Federal Government isnt responsible to pay reparations to African
Americans.

Contention 1:
The United States Federal Government should NOT pay reparations to African Americans
because, according to the briefing a strong pro on why African Americans should have
reparations is, Some managed to own land and worked hard to build wealth. However, through
terrorism, lynching, and legal theft much of this land was stolen and given to white Americans.
There are 406 documented cases of black owned land theft, valued at tens of millions of dollars.
This is somewhat of an invalid reason of why African Americans should be paid reparations
because; counter: That money cannot be priced at times of now; thing where valued differently
throughout times, it is going to be very hard to account for who got robbed and also it would not
affect them if they are wealthy. How can we be sorry and reparate the African American, even
rich Blacks owned slaves, why should we pay them if they had slaves too? An example of this is,
Anthony Johnson was known as one of the first black Slave Masters. If African Americans
owned slaves shouldnt they pay also? We have already shown support for all Blacks and not
just African Americans. Laws were already being passed to show that the United States did care
for the Blacks according to the the briefing, The State Governments were responsible for many

of the discriminatory policies known collectively as the Jim Crow Era. The statement says,
The United States Federal Government ought to pay reparations to African Americans.
Reparations for what when even African Americans had owned slaves themselves. This is a
reoccurring theme throughout history where other countries have owned Black slaves, should
they pay too?
Contention 2:
The African Americans have already been paid reparations in some sort or manner so the
government shouldnt have to pay them again.
The federal government has taken care of this issue a long long time ago so why it is being
brought up again has no relevance. A reparation is more than just giving someone money. As
stated in the brief, theres several types of reparations including apologies. The federal
government has gave African American people reparations in all sorts of forms. I would
understand that the African American community might be upset if they didnt get any
reparations at all but they got all sorts of reparations and I feel as if theyre being greedy and
asking too much of the federal government seeing as the current federal government wasnt even
at fault for slavery. The federal government wouldnt have to carry the burden of what previous
leaders or previous government officials did. Its not the current federal governments problem
that this happened and if the federal government in the past already paid reparations why should
the current one have to pay them also. So the point here is that why should the government have
to pay reparations when there are so many reasons why they shouldnt have to. Reasons such as
reparations have already been paid by the federal government of the past so they have already
been paid. Another reason is that why should the new federal government have to pay for them
when they werent even responsible for it and if they have already been paid.

Contention Number 3:
The United States Federal Government isnt responsible to pay reparations to African
Americans.
The briefing states, Deontology as an affirmative case can be used, this will argue that
reparations must be paid because it is the moral action to take. This can also be countered very
easily by stating, the although the United States government is idealized as good, it does not
have the ability to repay everyone else such as the Native Americans. Deontology deals with the
rightness or wrongness of an action without moral action. In this case, Deontology can be used
the in name way for African Americans and have them treated not like a special case. By doing
so it may seem as the United States are trying to make that the Africans Americans are a special
case and they should be helped as one when the the law it clearly states, all people are equal, so
we shall not need a special case.
There may also be concerns of resentment from other minority groups. Some coalitions
have been built across different marginalized populations. These groups can effectively mobilize
to create change that is greater than when each individual group of minorities fights for changes
on their own. A clear example of a minority coalitions success would be the constituents who
elected Barack Obama as president for two terms There is a risk that by providing reparations to
African Americans there could be backlash from other minority groups that would fracture these
coalitions. This might reduce how effectively the cause of social justice might be advanced in
other areas. By doing so and making these seem as a special case would make other groups feel
left out a backlash would occur, then how would we pay all of the other people that were treated
badly.

Another reason is, The Census uses the terms black and African American
interchangeably. Some teams will argue that this complicates matters when doling out
reparations, since black encompasses a variety of groups with different historical experiences.
If states blacks and the reparations were to be paid, then lawsuits and many, many issues can
come up because of the terming. This would make it even more complicated for the government
to handle possibly thousands of cases.
Contention 4:
It is very irrational to be able to pay the reparations that the African American community is
asking for.
It is very unideal and irrational to be able to pay reparations for stuff that happened literally over
100 years ago. In 1865, slavery was abolished so reparations from 1865 and today would be very
different. Prices change over time so the value of things is constantly changing due to the various
effects the market can have on the price of your things. Its really hard to be able to convert the
value of certain things from 1865 to the present. Even if were dealing with straight cash, the
prices are so weird because 10 dollars from 1865 is like 1,000 dollars today. So it is very unideal
for the federal government to be able to pay reparations for what happened that long ago because
things arent the same as they use to be. Its sort of the same thing with land. 1 acre of land in
1865 probably seems cheap to us today but however much it cost was what the actual price of it
was back then and back then you got a lot more bang for your buck. Over time because the
amount of inflation that happened, money's worth a lot less now. So that brings me to my
conclusion, only way it would be ideal to give the African American community reparations for
things from 1865 would be to not give them any reparations at all because there is no ideal way
to do so.